The Associated Press
- AP
A House committee investigating the January 6 uprising at the U.S. Capitol cited four advisers and aides of former President Donald Trump who were in contact with him before and during the attack.
The panel convened Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff;
Dan Scavino, former deputy chief of communications staff at the White House;
Kashyap Patel, a former Defense Department official, and Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser.
The committee chairman, Democrat Bennie Thompson, wrote to the four men that
the committee is investigating "the facts, circumstances and causes" of the attack and asked them to produce documents and appear to testify in mid-October.
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The subpoenas represent a major escalation for the panel now entering the interview phase after sorting through thousands of pages of documents the committee requested from federal agencies and social media companies.
The goal is to
provide full accountability for
what was what went wrong when Trump supporters overwhelmed police within hours and disrupted the confirmation of the victory of the current president, Joe Biden
,
and prevent something similar from happening again.
In the letters sent to each of the witnesses, Thompson claims that investigators believe they have important information about the insurrection preparations.
In Bannon's case, for example, Democrats cite his January 5 prediction that "all hell is going to break loose tomorrow"
and his communications with Trump a week before the riot in which he urged the president to focus his attention on January 6.
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The committee also mentions Meadows' work to reverse Trump's defeat in the weeks leading up to the insurrection
and his pressure on state officials to push forward the former president's false claims of alleged "massive electoral fraud."
In the letter to Meadows, Democrats say they have "credible evidence" of their participation in events within the scope of the committee's investigation.
That includes his communication with Trump on January 6 and his alleged involvement in the "planning and preparation of efforts to challenge the presidential election and delay the counting of electoral votes."
Thompson also noted that
the committee is interested in the fact that Meadows urged Justice Department officials to investigate possible voter fraud.
A security fence surrounds the United States Capitol in Washington on Saturday, September 18, 2021. The sign on the fence reads "Police line, do not cross."
AP Photo |
J. Scott Applewhite
Former Attorney General William Barr has claimed that the Justice Department found no fraud
influencing the outcome of the election.
The committee cites reports that Patel, a Trump henchman who had recently been assigned to the Pentagon, was speaking to Meadows "non-stop" the day the attack occurred.
Scavino was with Trump on Jan.5 during a discussion about how to persuade members of Congress not to certify Joe Biden's election
, according to reports cited by the committee.
On Twitter, he promoted Trump's rally before the assault and encouraged his followers to "be a part of history."
The panel said its records indicate that on January 6 Scavino was "tweeting messages from the White House."
Only two Republicans are on the panel
, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger.
In July, the committee held a first hearing with the emotional testimonies of four police officers who were injured in clashes with the mob seeking to storm the Capitol while repeating Donald Trump's lies about electoral fraud.
At least nine people died on the day of the riot and in the days that followed, including a woman who was killed by a police officer as she tried to enter the House of Representatives compound.
Two officers committed suicide a few days later and another Capitol Police officer, Officer Brian Sicknick, collapsed and died hours after his encounter with the protesters.
A medical examiner later determined that he had died of natural causes.
The Metropolitan Police announced this summer that two of its officers who responded to the insurrection, Kyle DeFreytag and Gunther Hashida, had also committed suicide.